Analysing the reliability of multi UAV operations
Troy S. Bruggemann, Duncan Campbell · QUT ePrints (Queensland University of Technology) · 2017
Achieving economies of scale for UAV operations inevitably requires the operation of many UAVs by few human operators, whether it is for time-critical tasks such as search and rescue or postal delivery involving fleets of UAVs. Although it is technically possible to operate many UAVs with one operator, operation of multiple UAVs conducting beneficial tasks in a civilian airspace environment requires consideration of the associated risks. This paper is concerned with the question of how can the reliability of multi-UAV operations with human operators be analysed for assessing safety? This paper takes the view that a UAV team with human operators can be considered like any other system and analysed using functional safety principles. For this purpose, this paper presents a multi-UAV mission modelling and simulation framework with a human workload model.